Pumping water from Roxburgh to Lake Roxburgh Village at the
Roxburgh dam is considered by the Roxburgh Community Board to
be the best solution to ease water supply problems and meet
new drinking water standards, although the pipeline will be
expensive.
The board yesterday heard the pipeline would cost $600,000
and a second funding application to the Ministry of Health
had been declined, as the village did not meet the new
deprivation index eligibility requirements.
The ministry had already approved a grant of $38,000 for the
Lake Roxburgh [Roxburgh Village] water system upgrade and the
remainder would be funded through a loan expected to take 20
years to pay off.
The grant was given specifically to upgrade the supply or fix
the present plant, not for the pipeline, but it is expected
the grant will still be forthcoming.
"[Waitaki MP] Jacqui Dean gave assurance that [Minister of
Health] Tony Ryall was OK with what we are doing," board
chairman Stephen Jeffery said.
The Central Otago District Council had intended to upgrade
the water systems separately and a grant of $330,000 had
already been given for the Roxburgh supply upgrade.
Though the pipeline would have a high initial cost, it was
expected that ongoing costs would be significantly lower than
the other option, which was to upgrade the Lake Roxburgh
water treatment plant at a cost of $360,000.
If the board chose to upgrade the treatment plant, the effect
on water rates was expected to be $42 a year which would rise
to $48 a year after 20 years to take into account the need to
upgrade and because no subsidy would be available.
With the pipeline option, however, the effect was expected to
be $20 a year for the 20-year duration of the loan
repayments. Once the loan was paid off, that cost was
expected to reduce.
This option also gave the opportunity for new water
connections to be established, which the upgrade option did
not provide.
The board approved the tender process for the construction
which is proposed to begin early next year.
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